Microsoft Teams will now allow users to integrate third-party apps during video calls

Bringing greater flexibility to how Microsoft Teams works, users will now be able to integrate third-party apps into Teams meetings — before, during and even after a meeting. This feature has been one of the many updates brought in by Microsoft to mark the third anniversary of both Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams. In a company blog written by Jared Spataro, the Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, the firm said that now “developers and independent software vendors” will be able to add a tab in the “pre-meeting window” or insert a button to open on the meeting control bar. A third party file can also exist in the post-meeting chat window. [caption id=“attachment_8632631” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Image: Microsoft Teams[/caption] The blog announced that the first batch of partner software providers would be Miro, HireVue, Polly, Open Agora and iCIMS. These developers will deliver integrations with Teams meetings sometime later in 2020. “Applications can span across chat and collaboration and easily have a workflow that expands into meetings now,” said Michal Lesiczka, a group product manager of Microsoft Teams, to The Verge. Another group product manager Archana Saseetharan told the portal that developers have demanded this kind of integration for a long time now. “One of the key pieces of feedback is, ‘Okay, we can integrate and enable scenarios in these other areas, but in meetings, we want to be playing there as well.” New Software Development Kit (SDK) and Application Programming Interface (API) capabilities are being added to Teams to bring external content to live meetings. According to TechRepublic, developers could integrate their apps only within “channels, one-to-one chats and group chats” before. So screen sharing was the only way of sharing something in Microsoft Teams. With the update in place, bringing in an online white board, polls, charts and surveys won’t be a problem.